Live Nation and Vivendi post strong Q3 results

Live Nation’s Q3 results saw turnover grow to more than $3bn abd president and CEO, Michael Rapino,  hailed the company’s “concerts flywheel” as it celebrated another record-breaking quarter.

Rapino told investors: “Our concerts business is our flywheel” – the persistent, margin-generating heart of the business – “attracting 28 million fans to shows globally in the quarter, which drove record results in our ticketing, advertising and on-site businesses. Our performance demonstrates how Live Nation has created the most unparallelled live platform, leveraging concert scale to drive growth across the full live ecosystem.” adding “Looking at the concerts flywheel in the third quarter, we had 16% more fans attend over 6,000 shows, growing revenue by 27% and AOI [adjusted operating income] by 38% year-on-year at a constant currency. Year to date, we have grown our fan base by 16% to 56 million [and] expect to [see] a record-setting 70 million fans attending Live Nation concerts in 2016.” Operating income from the concerts sector – or earnings before interest and taxes – grew 94% to £86.5 million.

Overall, Live Nation’s turnover grew to a record US$3.2 billion in Q3 2016 – up 21% year on year – outstripping quarters one (10% growth) and two (14%). The company also saw strong growth in ticketing (Ticketmaster) and sponsorship/advertising, which were up 14% and 11%, respectively. Within Ticketmaster, the gross transaction value (GTV) of its secondary-market platforms – such as Ticketmaster Resale, TicketsNow, Seatwave and Get Me In! – grew 33%, to more than $1bn for the three months ending 30 September.


And strong growth from its live and ticketing operations helped Vivendi increase turnover by 5.9% in the three months ending 30 September, its third-quarter (Q3) results reveal. Revenues from Vivendi Village – the subsidiary that includes the French multinational’s ticketing operations (See Tickets and Digitick), live event producer Vivendi Talents&Live and the 1,772-cap. Olympia venue in Paris – grew from €22 million in Q3 2015 to €24m; an increase of 5.8%, or 12.1% on a constant-currency basis (eliminating the effects of exchange-rate fluctuations). Vivendi’s Q3 financial report also reveals its €159m acquisition in April of a 15% stake in French retail group Fnac will serve as the basis for “increased co-operation in live events […] and in ticketing in certain countries by teaming up with Vivendi Ticketing”.  Universal Music Group (UMG) posted impressive 10.8% growth to €1.308 billion.